Another Mean Hive

[The15thMember]

Nice to hear it went well, hard work but worth it for the sanity and safety of the family life I'm sure

Indeed.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a smooth job that was well done Reagan! I am a little confused so help me please as I have some questions because I'm not totally clear most likely: The first; what does the abbreviation BIAS represent perhaps 'Bees In Adult Stage; or something else?   

Brood In All Stages, i.e. I knew the queen was in the top half of the hive because I saw eggs and young larvae, along with capped brood.

The second: Being you went this far to rid yourself of this type of 'mean' bee, why did you leave 'any' capped brood, or 'bees' of any type or stage in this hive?

I left 'them' with most of the capped brood that had been in the bottom of the hive, since there weren't any eggs or larvae of queen-rearing age down there.

Who is them? Wasn't it your goal to completely eliminate this hive of mean bees? And since these larva will most likely 'grow up' with the same mean genes, aren't you concerned you will have a small force of 'meaniens' flying around your yard when they become of age? 

"Them" is the nurse bees who were in the top section of the hive with the queen, which wasn't very many.  I shook them onto the frames I left in the hive.  My goal was not to kill the whole hive, but to leave just enough bees to requeen, which I tried to estimate between the nurse bees I had from the top section, the couple handfuls of flying bees I didn't manage to kill, and the capped brood.  This hive was perfectly fine when they were small, so I'm hopeful that with more than half their population gone, they won't be strong enough to terrorize the whole apiary, front yard, and garden.  Even if they are a little bit of a nuisance in the apiary for a few weeks until they are requeened and have new blood coming in, I don't really care that much.  I just need my family to be able to be outside.  And since the hive will be low on foragers for a while, I'm pretty sure they won't have the "bee-power" to waste on chasing people all over creation.           

[Ben Framed]

My goal was not to kill the whole hive, but to leave just enough bees to requeen

Thanks for the clarification, I totally misunderstood your goal or missed it, (hive eradication).  sorry

In that case sometimes simply requeening will settle them down pretty fast.
Had I understood you goal in the beginning I would have suggested trying this first... (That is if you would have had a mated queen on hand or access to a mated queen ready to introduce.)

Either way I hope this works out for you and your family.. No fun being attacked each time you walk in the vicinity of the bee area...

Phillip

[The15thMember]

Either way I hope this works out for you and your family.. No fun being attacked each time you walk in the vicinity of the bee area...

Even less fun when you aren't in the vicinity of the bee area at all.    So far yesterday afternoon and this morning, we've had no mean bees in the garden or the front yard, so far so good.  I may go up this afternoon and get the honey off the hive that I put above a triangle escape board, so that will be telling. 

[Ben Framed]

Sounds good! When does you sourwood flow start?

Phillip

[The15thMember]

Sounds good! When does you sourwood flow start?

Phillip

The trees are just starting to bud.    Usually it's the end of June/beginning of July.

[Bill Murray]

Member, I apologize been awful busy as of late. I would have moved said hive put a catchbox in its place when all the field bees were in the catchbox took it and dumped it up the road somewhere.

[Ben Framed]

I was searching for information about a two queen hive when I ran across this topic. I found it interesting. It has been a while since this topic was discussed. Reagan I hope this solved your problem for the long haul?

Bill that would have been a good and simple idea to get rid of the workforce since we discovered that was Reagan?s primary goal. That along with requeening with a proven gentle stock mated queen,  should have accomplished the goal. I would only add for the sake of beginners who might not know. Up the road would mean more than two miles so the mean rascals would not find their way back to the bee yard.

Phillip

[The15thMember]

Yeah, the situation was resolved after that.  I left the mean colony alone as much as possible for the next month or two, and they successfully raised a queen from my stock.  By September they were completely workable.  I did have to feed them to get them up to winter weight, but they overwintered successfully on their own.  I just inspected them yesterday actually; the same queen is still heading the colony and they had a pretty good season.  They put up a box or two of honey for me and their mite counts have been low all year.   

[Ben Framed]

Thanks for the good news update!